Abstract
Cosmic-ray muons can be used for the non-destructive imaging of spent nuclear fuel in sealed dry storage casks. The scattering data of the muons after traversing provides information on the thereby penetrated materials. Based on these properties, we investigate and discuss the theoretical feasibility of detecting single missing fuel rods in a sealed cask for the first time. We perform simulations of a vertically standing generic cask model loaded with fuel assemblies from a pressurized water reactor and muon detectors placed above and below the cask. By analysing the scattering angles and applying a significance ratio based on the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test statistic we conclude that missing rods can be reliably identified in a reasonable measuring time period depending on their position in the assembly and cask, and on the angular acceptance criterion of the primary, incoming muons.
Highlights
The operation of nuclear power plants generates high-level radioactive wastes which need to be stored and disposed of
The focus lies on the effects of various angular acceptances on the image quality
The second section provides a detailed study that focuses on the central fuel assembly
Summary
The operation of nuclear power plants generates high-level radioactive wastes which need to be stored and disposed of. Conventional radiography using neutrons or photons could not be applied successfully, partly due to the rich scattering history of traversing particles as a direct result of the dimensions of the storage cask [1] Other methods such as three-dimensional temperature field measurements or antineutrino monitoring [2] require a detailed knowledge of the fuel history or are not suitable for the assessment of individual storage casks. Poulsen et al [21] were the first to apply filtered backprojection algorithms to muon tomography imaging of dry storage casks using simulated data and could show that this technique can be applied to the detection of missing fuel assemblies. We address two levels of detail concentrating on the recognition of (missing) fuel assemblies and individual fuel rods
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